St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
March 5, 2006 Sunday
FOURTH EDITION
Gorky proves worthy as abstract expressionist
By David Bonetti POST-DISPATCH VISUAL ARTS CRITIC
It was Jackson Pollock who, in Willem de Kooning’s words, “broke the
ice,” creating in an amazing act of inspiration the so-called “drip”
paintings that have since defined abstract expression. But it was
Arshile Gorky, the dark, gloom-enshrouded refugee from Armenia, who
first found his mature voice as a painter among the artists of that
haunted generation that helped make New York the world’s art capital.
Gorky (1904-48) was the great apprentice of his time. One after
another, he tried on the styles of the painters of the near past,
only to throw them off when a new avatar appeared to him. What Gorky
did that was original and remains impressive was to combine Picasso’s
cubist space with Miro’s biomorphic surrealist imagery as if they
were one thing.
Gorky is seldom seen hereabouts, so this exhibition MOCRA is
presenting is greatly welcomed.
The show, which comes from Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles,
features 43 drawings from Gorky’s apprenticeship years. From his
start, Gorky was a superb draftsman, so it offers many small
pleasures to those who appreciate fine drawing.
What’s more, it allows the forensically inclined viewer to watch a
particular form transmute from representational to abstract to
representational again. And for those who know them, the payoff is to
see the genesis of the sexually charged forms that dominate Gorky’s
mature works.
In the current show, the form to follow is kidney-shaped, which
appears as a breast, a gourd, a peanut, a compote, a cartoon-like
head.
In two graphite drawings of female nudes from the mid-’30s, hung side
by side, you can see how Gorky was pushing himself out of the
familiar into the undiscovered. In one, a finely delineated portrait
of a woman with a stylish ’30s hairdo has been cut off from the rest
of his drawing by a crudely scrawled rectangular frame. Below the
cut-off point hangs a pair of large breasts turning into soft
geometric forms. In the adjacent drawing, the entire nude is composed
of interlocking kidney or peanut forms — the arm and shoulder, the
knee, the thigh/rump, the torso, the head. What Gorky had repressed
returns to dominate.
Despite a number of nude studies here, the still life, cubism’s
primary medium of experimentation, predominates. In these studies,
some quite beautiful, Gorky explores the possibilities of
representing three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional surface that
Picasso and Braque, taking off from Cézanne, had explored earlier.
This exhibition is as much about Hans Burkhardt as it is about Gorky.
The Swiss-born Burkhardt (1904-94) was a student and studio mate of
Gorky who saved a cache of works that the impulsive Gorky was
throwing out when he was evicted. Burkhardt moved to Los Angeles in
1937 and became one of the major abstract painters of that emergent
cultural center.
There are four paintings in the show. One is a portrait by Gorky of
the young, stiff Burkhardt holding his palette. Two others are
collaborations between student and pupil, showing various allegiances
to Picasso and Miro. The fourth, a Cézannesque landscape of Staten
Island by Gorky, demonstrates that Gorky was a very good apprentice.
Brooks did better
James Brooks (1906-1992) was born in St. Louis, but by the time he
was 5 he moved with his family to Oklahoma and Texas. By 1926, he
liberated himself by moving to New York, where he became a minor
member of the abstract expressionist fraternity.
The Greenberg Van Doren Gallery represents his estate, and in this,
his centennial year, the gallery is showing his work. One doesn’t
know if it is intentionally a centennial show or not, because the
gallery’s promotional materials make no mention of it.
Unfortunately, the show confirms Brooks’ second-rate status. Only a
handful of the dozen and a half works on view suggest a major talent.
In most of the dreary abstractions, Brooks’ inept drawing, jejune
sense of composition and disregard for surface dominate the viewing
experience. Color is Brooks’ strong point, but these works fail to
exploit even that virtue.
“Maruga” a 1962 vibrant composition of red, white, black and gray,
hints at what Brooks could do. I’ve seen better Brooks. This show
does him no honor.
—
‘Gorky: The Early Years, Paintings and Drawings, 1929-1937’
Where: The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, 3700 West Pine Mall,
St. Louis University
When: Through March 12. Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through
Sunday.
How much: free
More info: 314-977-7170 or
—
‘James Brooks: Small Paintings and Works on Paper’
Where: Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, 3540 Washington Avenue
When: Through March 25. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through
Friday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday
How much: free
More info: 314-361-7600 or